Episode #20: Former World Record holder and Paralympic Gold Medalist Shireen Sapiro talks about the heart break of retirement and finding herself again in life after swimming

June 4, 2021
Posted in Podcast

Episode #20: Former World Record holder and Paralympic Gold Medalist Shireen Sapiro talks about the heart break of retirement and finding herself again in life after swimming

Shireen Sapiro is a 3 x Paralympic swimmer, and former 100m Backstroke World Record holder – a record she broke at 17 years old, only 4 years after a devastating boat accident almost took her her life, slicing her in half, shattering her pelvis and leaving her left leg paralysed.

After a super-human effort to make it to Rio 2016 for her 3rd Paralympics, Shireen retired from swimming and in this episode she talks so honestly about the struggle to define herself as someone other than the swimmer in the months and years that followed. She opens up about the deep work she needed to do to find happiness and how she needed to re-define achievement to find a sense of peace and acceptance of herself.